Pe Kyaw Wins RGPS Graton After Three-Way Chop ($90,330)

The RunGood Poker Series Graton $800 Main Event has come to a close after a massive turnout. 1,043 players came out to create a massive prize pool of $730,100. The starting flight was brought down to 131 players for the second day, who were all guaranteed $1,175 for their efforts.

The day saw many names fall throughout, including Papa Karn (127th-$1,175), Jacob Long (117th-$1,320), Josh Prager (76th-$1,925), Rob “Boston Rob” Mariano (47th-$2,475), and Cody Stanford (32nd-$3,205). Each one of them falling short of the goal to make the final table.

After a long battle at the final table, Pe Kyaw (1st-$90,330) took home the ring after a three-handed ICM deal with Daniel Lowery (2nd-$88,870) and Taylor Pollard (3rd-$84,835) that saw each of them take home sizable prizes for their accomplishments.

The California resident found himself on the good end of the deck throughout much of the day, finding himself getting key double-ups through Noel Rodriguez (9th-$12,420) and David Bellacose (4th-$41,195) to end the day with the chip lead. Holding only $762 in lifetime Hendon Mob cashes and now has added a significant sum to his lifetime earnings. When asked about his play throughout the day, he said “play tight, play good.”

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Day 2 Highlights

Noel Rodriguez came into the final day as the overall tournament chip leader, but a rough beat against Pe Kyaw with two tables left when his ace-king couldn’t hold up against Kyaw’s king-jack saw him come to the final table as the shortest stack. He eventually got in his final five big blinds with jack-ten suited and David Bellacose called him with king-queen offsuit. Both players flopped a pair, but it was Bellacose’s pair of queens that were good and Rodriguez ended his run in ninth place for $12,420.

Following him out the door in eighth place was Jason Castro. Chip Leader Taylor Pollard moved all in from the button into the two shortest stacks at the table, and Castro called with ace-jack for twelve big blinds. It was behind the ace-queen of Pollard and no jack on the runout meant that Castro collected $16,640 for his efforts.

James Cavanaugh found a double up roughly an hour into the final table when his ace-jack held against Mitchell Collins’ king-queen, but shortly after his pocket jacks ran into Pollard’s aces. The board brough no help to the pocket jacks and Cavanaugh wished his table mates luck as he and his sizable rail went off to collect the $20,970 for his efforts.

Mitchell Collins lost the key hand to Cavanaugh which put him as the table short stack for a bit. Eventually he would move in his final chips with ace-nine offsuit from early position which Pollard called with king-jack offsuit. The flop came out king high and that was all she wrote for Collins who ended his run in sixth place for $25,365.

Don Vo collected $31,255 for his deep run. He bounced around as the short stack for the most part of the final table, but eventually he moved in his final chips with ace-nine offsuit, only for Taylor Pollard to call him with ace-jack offsuit. The board ran out with no help to Vo and he ended his run in 5th place.

David Bellacose came into the final table as one of the big stacks, but he lost two key hands to Pe Kyaw that set him back significantly. He first lost pocket nines to Kyaw’s ace-three for them to flip places on the chip counts. The next time he lost pocket jacks to Kyaw’s pocket threes after they got all their chips in preflop. A three rolled off on the flop and no help was brought to Bellacose who ended his run in fourth place for $41,195.

After some hands were played and the chip counts became significantly more similar, the three remaining players began talks of a deal. All three players agreed to an ICM chop that saw Pollard take home $84,835 for a third-place stack, Lowery take home $88,870, and Kyaw take home $90,330 as well as the ring and the seat to the Dream Seat Invitational at Thunder Valley.